It is 2024! Here’s to you, Dragons.
Enough about dragons, I want to talk horses;) I made this Horse puppet, or pose-able doll, at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. I ended up working a lot during that time because animation and teaching could both be done remotely, but at the beginning, when things were uncertain, there was time to indulge in some personal projects.
the horse stands about 12” tall and is made of foam rubber, nylon stockings and recycled fur. it has an aluminum skeleton called an “armature”, and hardware called “tie-downs” sculpted into the hooves which are made from sculpt-able epoxy.
I shared my progress on Instagram (#itsgonnabeahorse) and that helped me feel connected to my friends and family when we couldn't see each other. I had nothing to talk about, but I had images to share. So many stages in the process of building a puppet are interesting and artful. Usually, I am the audience to my extremely talented puppet fabricator pals. It was rewarding to be the fabricator, even if I was just muddling through. And now I appreciate how hard it is to stop and take a photo or video when you are right in the middle and your fingers are gummy with latex!
The story of why I wanted to make this Horse so badly goes back to when I was a kid. I had a little toy pony that I got in Chinatown that had a hard plastic body and was covered in real fur. It had a brown coat and a flowing white mane and tail. I actually found a similar one on Etsy!
image credit : Christine Loughead
Owner of VickysVintageVenue on Etsy
I noticed ponies that looked like my toy in Mongolian artwork and films. I have always been so drawn to their shaggy elegance, as well as the landscape they occupy and the people who ride them.
Four Horses by Jin Gao (detail), oil on canvas 2001. 36”x34”
Photo credit: Batzaya Choijiljav. Mongolian photographer and traveler
I loooooved this pony so, so much. But when I turned 13, I got my first puppy.
"Trixie" also loved it so, so much... with her mouth. My pony was in bits! So was my heart.
Almost 30 years later, when the world was shutdown, I was in my home which happens to be full of art supplies. What else could I do but play god for a few weeks and make something where there was nothing? Something in the shape of a Horse.
I've never animated a horse... not that I can remember at least. But I would love to. I wanted to make sure my Horse puppet could bend and stretch, unlike my pony from childhood. And I wanted it to have some fur and that very long, flowing mane.
top left to right - threaded nut “tie-downs” that get sculpted into the hoof to allow the puppet to be bolted down. Hooves are made first to determine size. An armature is built with wooden blocks to add bulk and provide grab-points. The mane wire is added. Begin wrapping foam rubber. A nylon “skin” is added.
Creating puppets gets me very close to the joy of play from childhood. It does feel like you are breathing a little soul into each character as you see them come to completion. Professionally, it is very rare that I would build a puppet from start to finish, so this odd period of time in 2020 was an opportunity to put a lot of hours into something I'd been dreaming of. When I was working on the Horse, I wasn't worrying about anything. I was imagining her galloping through the steppes, scrambling over mountains and grazing by a stream. It really did feel like being a kid again.
My horse has become a character in a story I've been working on with the help of my dear friend and fellow artist, Renee Zhang. It's called "The Runaway Bride".
